Second to one: The service crosses

Contrast those stories we’ve reported for the last few years about fake veterans prosecuted for wearing unearned medals to this recent item.

It’s from Navy Times, about a Navy medical officer who received the Navy Cross for his actions during ferocious combat against al Qaida and Taliban forces in Afghanistan.

It says something about the nature of the truly deserving, and about that overused word “hero” being flung about these days.

The Navy Cross is considered among the nation’s pantheon of medals as the second highest for valor.

But the unknown Navy medical officer can’t, and won’t, wear it.

Navy Times begins the story, which includes a censored copy of the medal citation, this way:

“Somewhere out in the fleet, there’s a Navy medical officer who earned the Navy Cross during vicious, hammering combat five years ago.

“And he’s not authorized to wear the award — second only to the Medal of Honor.

“That’s because the 2003 mission, during which the officer fought like a demon and put himself in the line of fire to save several wounded American and Afghan comrades from al-Qaida and Taliban forces, remains classified.

“And so does his identity.”

The Medal of Honor, deservedly, often grabs the spotlight from the bronze crosses next to it, which are, equivalent to each other, the Distinguished Service Cross for the Army, the Navy Cross for the Navy and Marine Corps, and the Air Force Cross.

The Silver Star is right up there, considered third among awards for valor.

When we can, we report about people from our hometowns and local military communities who’ve received them (don’t call them medal “winners;” valor is not a contest, they don’t like it and they’ll tell you the real heroes are the ones who gave their lives.)

On occasion, the Distinguished Service Cross has been used dismally, as when racism precluded award of the Medal of Honor to deserving African-American soldiers in WWII, giving them DSCs instead. The nation righted the wrong in 1997.

But that ought to taint the character of those policy makers behind its misuse, not the medal and its recipients.

Overall, the DSC’s distinction is nearly as rare and unique as the MoH. (It’s properly referred to as the Medal of Honor, not the Congressional Medal of Honor.)

The DSC criteria stipulates its award for combat against an enemy by a person who “distinguishes himself or herself by extraordinary heroism not justifying the award of a Medal of Honor…The act or acts of heroism must have been so notable and have involved risk of life so extraordinary as to set the individual apart from his or her comrades.”

The stories that can be told speak for themselves. And there are a few recipients among us here in the Pacific Northwest.

Last month, my colleague Brad wong wrote about a Fort Lewis soldier, Army Staff Sgt. Christopher Waiters, who received the DSC from Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army’s vice chief of staff.

Last year, another colleague, Carol Smith, interviewed Army 2nd Lt. Bryan Jackson, of Oak Harbor, a West Point grad who received the DSC for his actions in Iraq in September 2006.

At the time, Jackson was said to be only the seventh DSC recipient since the Vietnam War.

A few years ago I had the privilege of interviewing another local DSC recipient, Bob Prince, a WWII Army Ranger and a former Seattleite who reared his family in Wenatchee before retiring to Port Townsend.